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Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Out Run - Atari ST [044] PlayThru

Out Run, the Sega arcade classic, features the little red Ferrari and the quite well done tunes to go along with the journey. How does the ST version stack up?

NOTE: A trainer was used for making this capture.

I have little experience with the arcade version. I played it, but not much. I first had Out Run on the Sega Master system, and then later picked it up on the Atari ST. In an odd twist, Out Run was released in both the US and Europe, with a few minor differences from each other. The European version is presented here, and that is the version I originally bought from L&Y Computers WAY back!

For presentation, I love the music and think the art is well done on the ST. The soul of the Out Run music is present on the YM2149.

As far as the execution of the game goes, I have some issues with how the game was made. I am not a fan of how the 3D in the game was executed. The world seems too flat too me along with the movement of the Ferrari, flatter than I remember from the Sega Master System version. I will go back and play and post that version soon.

I have no problems with the controls either. I did use a joystick instead of the mouse, but they worked for the game.

Overall, Out Run is a decent effort, but could use some tweaks to improve it. Definitely worth a look, in my opinion.

And, I am not the only one who thinks some improvements could be made; FedePede04 has a thread on Atari-Forum, http://www.atari-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=36575, where he has chronicled some updates he has made, with one of them being up and down animations of the Ferrari, which really adds some depth (no pun intended)!
Capture info -

This video was captured on January 11, 2020.

Game was played on an Atari 1040 STf, TOS 1.4, 1MB, equipped with a CosmosEX from Jookie.
A Best Electronics ST Monitor to VGA cable was used, connected to an OSSC 1.6 (processing the video in Line4x mode), with the output being captured by a Startech USB3HDCAP.